With the overcrowded conditions of conventional golf courses, the expense of play and the time required to play a round of golf, a number of people have recognized the need for providing a compact form of golf course which is less expensive due to use of less land, allows multiple players to speed up the time and as a result of the two, reduces the cost to the golf player. A number of patents have been issued for compact golf courses which include the following:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued Inventor ______________________________________ 3,129,943 April 21, 1964 McKee 3,310,310 March 21, 1967 McKee 3,464,703 Sept. 2, 1969 Vallas 3,685,832 Aug. 22, 1972 Johnson 3,904,209 Sept. 9, 1975 Thomas 3,999,764 Dec. 28, 1976 Nitsche 4,019,748 April 26, 1977 Healey 4,063,738 Dec. 20, 1977 Michalson 4,129,300 Dec. 12, 1978 Magnuson 4,192,510 March 11, 1980 Miller 4,283,056 Aug. 11, 1981 Miller ______________________________________
Each of these patents disclose golf courses requiring significantly less ground than a standard golf course, and often to varying degrees appear to achieve the objective of faster play and reduced cost.
It would appear from the study of these patents that many of them go to a great extent to simulate play of the golf course and may attempt to provide an atmosphere of isolation through the use of natural and artificial barriers between player tees providing a degree of simulation of play of a conventional golf course. While a number of these objectives have been attained, at least partially, the compact golf course has not reached any significant acceptance in the golf community as noted by their absence from the modern day golf scene. In a typical metropolitan area, one will find public and private full size golf courses, par three or reduced yardage golf courses and driving ranges but this inventor has yet to see a single operating compact golf course of the type disclosed in the above patents.
In my parent application referenced above, several patents were referenced relative to various forms of golf courses and swing actuated training devices. They include:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued Inventor ______________________________________ 1,851,423 March, 1932 Ely 2,003,074 May, 1935 Gage 2,248,053 July, 1941 Bales 3,216,726 Nov., 1965 Anderson et al 3,314,679 April, 1967 Kolln 3,820,133 June, 1974 Adorney et al ______________________________________
Recognizing the continuing need for compact golf courses and after further study of the features of the several disclosures, this inventor finds that his basic concept provides features not present in any prior compact golf course designs and in fact provides a game of golf which is superior in a number of respects to the conventional golf game.
For a compact course to function successfully and with enthusiastic public acceptance, since all fairway shots are made from the player's one single tee, and since with a compact course he can't go out to where he has hit the ball and appraise the remaining play from there, it becomes essential for the player to know accurately how far he has advanced the ball. This basic essential requirement is readily recognized when you try to visualize, from an eye level of five and one half feet, accurately determining the distance to a one and one half inch diameter ball as distant as the combined length of up to two to three football fields. Another analogy--seeing the accurate distance to a ball as far away as between two to three times the distance between home plate and the outfield fence of a baseball field; or to see its location between horizontal lines, which at that distance and angle have no distinction between them. Until my invention, herein set forth, means for accurately knowing at the tee location, the distance of long hit balls has not been effectively made a part of golf.
The need for a solution to this problem was emphasized unsuccessfully in the prior art by Gage way back fifty years ago. In his U.S. Pat. No. 2,003,074, he calls for a boy to sit on a tall pole and call back to the player the distance hit. This was not successful, particularly when there were multiple tees. The boy would be yelling his head off as well as distracting the other players. Also, if two players at different tees hit simultaneously, the boy would have a problem. The solution is provided by this inventor using closed circuit television and a supplemental device, neither of which are found in any of the prior art.
In the prior patents, fairway targets were shown raised to provide some means of seeing long hit balls. This was inadequate. It also blocked the view to balls hit beyond the raised targets. However, it again emphasized the need for adequate means of seeing accurately the true distance of long hit balls.
This prior art does not disclose any closed circuit television aid in which the tees each have associated therewith an illuminatable tee sign and one or more television cameras are located down field and directed towards the tees. None have a switch actuated by the player's swing which serves to illuminate the tee number sign so that the player, as he completes his swing, can look at the television monitor and immediately pick out his tee location by viewing the illuminated tee number sign as seen by the television cameras. It is therefore easier for him to pick out and follow his ball in flight knowing its source location, namely his own tee, on the monitor screen.
Also, with the golfer's continuing desire to improve his ball striking ability, he has lacked an aid not provided in the previous patents, that is, to know with reliable accuracy how far he has hit a ball each time with the same club, and have means of recording same, and then he can pinpoint improvement. The composite of my invention provides this aid.
Also, previous inventors have not made provision for comparable multiple chipping and pitching and putting greens with sand trap play which are introduced as component parts of my invention, and greatly increase play capacity.
This prior art does not disclose any comparable simplified, maintenance free water hazard arrangement for retrieving golf balls from the water hazard, as is provided for in my subject invention, which resolves past attempts in the previous patents, going back many years of complicated mechanical devices that proved to be impractical.
None of the above disclose a double ended golf course using the same area for two oppositely directional courses.